Living in Exile
by TwistedFortune
Summary: Roaming across the land of Valoran in Exile, what will the once mighty Noxian warrior Riven encounter in her journeys? Find out in this series of stories centered around Riven, The Lone Exile, and her journey for redemption.
1. Story 1: The Lost Boy

Bright rays of orange shot across the Valoran sky as the Sun began to set on the horizon.

Below in one of the many forests of Valoran was a young woman who wore a large steel plated shoulder pad with many scratches adorning it, a simple short tunic, and a small cloak-like shirt. In her gloved hand was a rather large albeit damaged sword which had many runic characters inscribed along it's sharp blade.

Her name was Riven, known to Noxus as a brave warrior who would go to any lengths to prove her strength and the strength of Noxus in battle, known to Ionia as The Butcher**[1]**, a horrifying soulless woman with an unquenchable bloodthirst and a blade to match. Currently however, she chose to go simply by "The Exile."

The Exile currently was crouched down in a bush, her sword shimmering slightly with Ki as energy ran throughout the weapon. Infront of her, was a foraging dear feasting on some berries in an adjacent bush, unaware of the fate which awaited it.

Quickly, she burst from the bush with a grunt, the dear could only jump in fear as the blade struck clean through it's head, causing it to quickly fall to the forest floor in a bloody heap. In the distance of the forest, she thought she could hear a scream, but when she stopped to listen she heard nothing. Shrugging, she pulled the dear over her shoulder and started back to her 'camp'.

By now, Riven had been foraging for food in this forest for atleast 5 months since the terrifying fate which befell her fellow soldiers at the hands of the Zaun menace Singed, thus opening her eyes to the true nature of Noxus.

Noxus.

The name left a sour taste in her mouth, and a horrible feeling in her heart. If she dwelled on it too much she would start feeling teary. How could they do this to her? To their own people? The dream and vision of Noxus still lived on in Riven's heart, but the Noxus she knew now was far different from the one she has witnessed. It was a bastardization of the Noxus dream. A zombie.

Regardless of how much she hated Noxus now, she was thankful for the training that she had received from Noxus as it was undoubtedly the reason she had been surviving out in the forest for as long as she had been.

The sun above was rapidly descending, and the darkness was spreading across the sky.

Finally after the short walk through the forest path, she reached her 'camp', which was a small cave which held a fire pit inside, a small napsack of what few personal items she had, and a makeshift bed of leaves. Next to the cave, a short walk led to a small lake which she bathed in. It wasn't really much to look at granted, but this small cave had quickly became home to her. Then again, she was used to living out in nature. Plenty of practice from staking out Ionian and Demacian settlements during her time spent as 'The Butcher'.

Not to mention the previously mentioned survival training.

Throwing the deer down on the ground next to the fire pit, she quickly sparked up a flame which lit the dark cave. She prepared to skin the deer when she heard another scream off in the distance. This time, she was certain she heard it.

She stopped what she was doing and walked outside of the cave into the rapidly darkening forest, listening.

She heard the usual sounds of the forest; birds chirping and trees' leaves rustling from the slight breeze which blew through the land. But then she heard it again; a shriek off in the distance carried by the wind.

It was coming to the North of her position, and curiosity got the best of her and she started off in the direction of the screams.

She didn't know what exactly she would find, but she was determined to get to the bottom of this. More screams echoed through the forest and the closer she got to the source the more and more young the voice sounded, and eventually she reached the source right as the moon rose and the night set in.

Infront of her was a large cave bear circling a tree.

Riven crouched into a bush and look up into the tree, and there on the branch was a young boy. Tears trailed down the boy's face as he sobbed and screamed for help once more. The bear circling below looked to be female, and it looked really angry at the boy. It was possible that the boy wandered into it's territory which caused the bear to give chase. Cave Bears in Valoran were known to be extremely territorial and dangerous; once you get one on your tail it's really hard to get one off it, especially with your limbs remaining intact.

The boy continued to sob as he hugged the branch, and the bear started to pound on the tree with it's claws causing the tree to shake violently. This caused the boy to cry even louder.

Riven continued watching the scene, unsure of what she should do.

In Noxus, she grew up under the belief that "Only the strong survive, the weak perish." and that seemed to apply to the situation very well. The boy obviously was too weak to defend himself from the large cave bear, and would definitely kill the boy if it got ahold of him.

_"If he's strong or smart enough, he'll survive; if not... The strong survive and the weak perish." _

She turned to leave the boy to his doom when she found she couldn't move or walk away. A heaviness weighed her down, and she wasn't sure what it was coming from. She felt sick to her stomach as the boy began crying more for help.

This wasn't right, and she knew it.

Noxus may have taught her that only the strong survive and the weak perish, and in theory it makes complete and perfect sense... But in what way is this the right thing to do? What exactly is the point of being strong? It seemed all it meant to be Noxian was to be strong just to rule over others.

The boy screamed louder as Riven desperately tried to make sense of the situation.

_"If he is strong... he'll survive... It is not my place to interfere."_

She continued to tell herself this until the branch the boy was on suddenly gave way causing him to plummet to the ground of the forest. The bear instantly stopped shaking the tree as the boy scampered to his feet, limping on his leg which was more than likely sprained from the fall. He tried running away but fell to the ground as the bear slowly stalked forward.

This was it, if she did not interfere, the boy would die.

_"He is weak... It is destined for him to die."_

The boy sobbed quietly as he closed his eyes and the bear was mere inches away. The bear opened it's mouth exposing it's sharp teeth and prepared to bite the boy's jugular, and after a brief pause, quickly moved in to finish him off but before he could bite him the bear was sent flying away into a nearby tree from a mighty burst of Ki from none other than Riven.

The boy sobbed for a moment still stuck in a trance, before opening his eyes surprised he was not dead yet and looked up at his savior.

Riven had a serious and determined look on her face as the bear rose to it's feet, the confusion from the situation quickly settling into anger at the strange woman who had taken away his right to feast on prey.

Snarling the bear prepared to charge her, and she pulled her broken blade out and it began to glow and spark with green energy as the blade suddenly reformed.

Roaring, the bear charged at her, but Riven proved to be a fast opponent and jumped out of the way, kicking the bear in the side of the face causing it's head to hit the ground. Dizzily, the bear staggered back up to it's feet, shaking it's head in an attempt to keep the dizziness at bay.

By now the bear was completely furious, large globs of spit falling from it's face along with blood from it's nose, either from when it hit the tree or when it was kicked to the ground. Riven readied her blade as the bear let out another ferocious roar and charged one last time, giving all it had in it, but it proved to be no match for Riven as she struck the bear with her blade, slicing deep into it's forehead.

The boy watched as the bear fell to the ground in a bloodied heap of gore, it's skull sliced open by the wound caused by Riven's sword.

Riven sighed as the reformed blade suddenly reverted to it's original 'broken' state.

There was a moment of silence and it was at this time that the boy was able to take a good look at Riven. She had a few scars along her arms, and she had a frown on her face with a glint of confusion in her eyes. After a moment of silence she put the damaged blade on her side and then she turned to face him.

"Can you walk?"

The boy looked down at this wounded leg, which was twisted out of place. It hurt to move it, but for the most part it was completely numb. Looking back up at her he shook his head 'no' and Riven looked around before walking up to him and picking him up in her arms.

"Where do you live?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment trying to remember the path he came from.

Earlier that day, his father instructed him to go out a little bit into the forest and gather some fresh berries for a special pie he was making for a customer. The boy was more than happy to help his father with gathering the ingredients for his pie, as he always was, and set off to do the task. He wasn't counting on accidentally straying too far from the path and wounding up face to face with an angry bear. He ran a few miles into the forest up into the tree and remained there up until the strange woman arrived and saved him.

Riven waited patiently for the boy to recount the location of his home, and eventually the boy looked up to her shyly and pointed infront of her.

Nodding she looked on ahead. "That way? You came that way?" He nodded again and she began walking with the boy in her arms.

It was a long, silent walk before she began seeing some bright lights off in the distance. There leading into the lights was a clear path which she assumed was the path the boy was following before getting lost somehow. On the ground next to some bushes was a spilled bucket of berries and Riven quickly pieced together what happened. Obviously he was strayed off the path by something, probably the bear.

But she was more curious as to how she hadn't noticed this town before. She had never really gone in this direction; she had no reason to.

After a brief moment of thinking it quickly dawned on her... This was the town. The next target. The next target her team was to strike; it was an Ionian village. How did she not remember this?

She had even taken part in some of the planning process for this one; the town had a small number of guards defending it, they would strike from all sides surrounding them and closing in, quickly killing all in sight. But it was still standing, obviously because her team was killed.

Pushing thoughts of sadness out of her mind as images flashed back of her team choking and clawing at their skin from the deadly poisons Singed had employed on them, she looked down at the boy in her arms who looked up at her with a confused look, probably curious as to why she had suddenly stopped and stared off at the town.

The boy can't walk obviously, and she can't exactly just walk him back into town; she is The Butcher, the one who has killed countless friends and families who called Ionia their home... How awkward it would be to have that same person return a lost boy to them.

She no longer wanted to be that person though. She just wanted to be Riven...

Sighing she walked closer to the town, and closer, and closer, until she was outside of it.

A single guard stood there at the entrance, and she covered her face up under the cover of night and her shirt. The guard soon saw her approach and put his hand on his weapon, obviously aware of the terrible fate which had met the other villages and towns with settlers from Ionia. Slowly she stepped forward and the guard's gaze met the boys.

"Who are you? Who is that in your arms?"

Neither Riven nor the boy responded as she walked closer.

Suddenly the guard realized. "Edd? Edd! Where have you been? You've had us worried sick!"

She was a few feet away at this point.

"He is hurt. I... Saved him. From a bear."

The guard was taken aback by this and stepped close to her, carefully pulling the boy from her arms.

"Thank you very much... How can we ever repay you?"

Riven stared at him, and the guard quickly started to feel something was off about this mysterious hero.

"Don't."

With that being said Riven turned and darted off as fast as she could, back the way she came. The guard called out to her but she either didn't hear it or was too busy running. She ran and ran until after a long, long run, she slowed until she reached her camp.

The fire inside the cave had long since died, and a small orange glow was seen from it's pit. She looked over at her napsack of personal items; it was a small bag of things she had collected over her time spent as a soldier. Rewards, small trinkets, the likes. She grabbed it, her stomach rumbling from hunger as she left the dead deer behind and started running off deeper into the forest.

She couldn't stay there.

Not with that village there.

So she ran and ran and ran, ran in search of a new far away place which she could call home.

* * *

><p>Hello there, welcome to the first chapterstory in a series of stories I am writing centered around Riven and her journeys and adventures she went through during her time spent as 'The Exile'. In it I hope to expand on some things that previously were left out of the lore centered around Riven and to overall give a detailed look into her character.

I'm not that great of a writer, not near as good as I wish I was, but I'm writing this in the hope of improving myself.

I love Riven's character, and I like the idea behind her, and I've always wanted to write a League of Legends story, so the two kind of went together and here we are now.

Please be sure to leave a review telling me your thoughts on the stories! I always love to hear everyone's thoughts, no matter how critical.

Anyway, I'm going to probably reference a few things and I'll number them each accordingly and reveal what I referenced in the Author's Note at the end of each story just because.

**1: **'The Butcher' is a nickname given to Riven in the story "A Blade Reforged" by Viper of Grand.

Seems to be it, and it seems like this Author's Note has gotten pretty large.

Until next time,

~Twisted.


	2. Remembering 1: Butch

The fire, or what was left of it anyway, was glowing faintly outside of her makeshift tent as the rain trickled down onto it, and sullen eyes stared at it as she lost herself in thought for what was probably the millionth time.

Her grimy white hair stuck to her neck as she rested her head against the palm of her hand, holding her head up as she lay in the mud, no longer caring about being dirty. She felt the wetness of the mud close in around her as she sunk slightly into the wet ground.

She continued watching the faint glow from the firepit as the rain continued to beat it, and couldn't help but think... _"Still barely holding on against all odds despite being beaten down by everything... Kind of like me." _

The rain picked up in intensity, and it began to soak the tent and the cold air began to bite her. She shivered slightly, but she had been through much worse in the wilderness than this - she had endured countless storms, windy, rainy, snowy, even some sandy, and she fought back against the cold with her Noxian endurance.

_Her Noxian endurance..._

She sighed as she remembered all her times at the academy, causing scenes every now and then in the classes. Not scenes caused by mischief - but scenes caused by Riven proudly upholding the Noxian morals and values. If a student was weak to her, she would challenge them right there in class - attack them on if he truly believed the ideas behind Noxus, scutinize them, embarass them, and she would not get in trouble for it either.

To her, the embarassment would strengthen them up, and her teachers seemed to agree with her on this, as they not only allowed her to go unpunished for every single disruption but also allowed bullying to run rampant.

Noxian bullying was the worst kind of bullying. Noxian bullying usually got bloody.

Riven was only bullied once in the academy - by a big mugfaced ape looking boy named, almost ironically, Butch.

Butch was a stupid kid, but what he lacked in intellect he made up for in his strength; muscles jutted out from underneath his Noxian training garb, muscles far larger and more defined than any of the other boys his age, something he proudly displayed and showed off and used to intimidate those he saw as below him, and apparently he saw Riven as being below him.

What a horrible mistake.

"Hey Riven..." He began, and she had turned and met his intimidating glare, and met it with a ferocious glare of her own, silently staring him dead in the eyes. "You sure like to cause alot of scenes... You think you're strong?" He continued, pausing slightly in between each syllable.

Riven continued staring at him, and then scoffed, her eyes unblinking. "You believe yourself to be strong? You are weak. You are Demacian fodder. You prey on the weak."

The boy stood there for a second in silence, and he appeared to be lost in thought as he stared off into the sky for a few moments, before snapping back into reality.

"Well you do the same! You always talk bad to the weaker kids in class!"

Riven scoffed once again. "You are a fool. What I do to those people, I do it not to feel stronger and make up for strength that I lack, I do it to strengthen them. You do it because you're a weakling."

Other trainees noticed the altercation and started to group up and watch the scene unfold.

The boy looked around and suddenly looked nervous; he knew that he was slowly beginning to lose whatever sort of power he had gained for himself by his bullying, and he needed to show them he was still strong. He sized Riven up - she didn't look so strong. Besides, she was a... Girl. He could take her.

"If I'm so weak - how about you quit talking and start swing- OOF"

He was cut off by Riven's fist slamming into his nose.

"Gladly."

He went crashing into the ground, blood already spouting out of his nose, and he quickly started to get up. "You just made a big mistake..." He said as he held his nose, but before he could get to his feet, Riven's foot came slamming down into his back, forcing him back down to the ground. Hard.

"ACK!"

Before he could say anything else or do anything else, Riven kicked him hard in the side, causing him to flip over and lay flat on his stomach, and he began to groan in pain, his eyes squeezed shut.

"So... Is this what strength looks like, Butch?" She said as she knelt down beside him. "Because all I see is a broken weakling. And weaklings have no place in Noxus."

Her hands closed in around his throat.

**Hey guys I'm back. I decided to pick this story back up again after having some ideas for it and I wanted to tell more stories centered around Riven. I think I'm going to do something different with this fanfiction: I'll have "stories" which are basically just random adventures and whatnot Riven gets into as she journies in exile, and then "remembering" segments, which are short chapters dedicated to Riven remembering parts of her past. I think it'll be a pretty fun and neat way to flesh out Riven a little more, and I hope you enjoy those as well as the stories.**

**For now I'm gonna take my leave. I hope you guys are interested!**

**-Twisted**


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